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MEDIA ADVISORY At approximately 11:50 a.m. Monday, Dec. 3, emergency personnel responded to a fire alarm pull at the Kittredge Commons building on the CU-Boulder campus. Emergency responders included City of Boulder firefighters, University of Colorado Police and officials from CU-BoulderÂ’s department of Environmental Health and Safety. Housing and Dining Hall employees in the Commons building reported being exposed to fumes from an unknown origin that caused irritation to their eyes, throats and noses.

Four new Professors of Distinction named by the University of Colorado at Boulder College of Arts and Sciences will discuss their research in public lectures on Monday, Dec. 3, on the CU-Boulder campus. The lectures will be in Wolf Law Building rooms 205 and 207 with two lectures beginning at 5:30 p.m. and two lectures starting at 6 p.m. in each of the rooms. A reception will follow in the Student Commons on the second floor.

When the next history of the University of Colorado at Boulder is written, Nov. 29, 2007 will mark a strategic turning point. The University of Colorado Board of Regents Thursday unanimously approved a new strategic plan for the University of Colorado at Boulder that was more than a year in the making, but which will transform the university for decades to come.

The University of Colorado at Boulder Leeds School of Business will present its annual Colorado Business Economic Outlook forum on Monday, Dec. 10, at 1 p.m. at the Denver Grand Hyatt Hotel, 1750 Welton St. Sponsored by the Leeds SchoolÂ’s Business Research Division and Compass Bank, the event is free and open to the public. No reservations are required.

A team of University of Colorado at Boulder MBA students beat 80 other teams to win an international competition that required participants to develop a business plan to distribute solar energy technology in Africa. The winning team included CU-Boulder Leeds School of Business graduate students Kristin Apple, David Crater. The trio competed in the Business Masters 2007 International Case Studies Competition finals in Karlsruhe, Germany, on Nov. 21 through Nov. 23.

Peace Corps Director Ronald Tschetter will speak to undergraduate business students during a visit to the University of Colorado at Boulder on Thursday, Nov. 29. Tschetter will speak to students in the "Business Applications for Social Responsibility" class beginning at 3 p.m. in room 102 of the Koelbel Building. During his visit he also will meet with top university officials and have lunch with potential and soon-to-depart Peace Corps volunteers and Peace Corps alumni.

A team of researchers led by the University of Colorado at Boulder has received a $4.25 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study the Boulder Creek watershed's "critical zone," which is made up of layers of soil and weathered rock. Awarded to CU-Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, the grant will allow the researchers to gain a better understanding of the critical zone, which is significant because it supports terrestrial life, according to Assistant Professor Suzanne Anderson of INSTAAR, the principal investigator on the NSF grant.

On Thursday, Nov. 29, students in two Introduction to Environmental Design classes at the University of Colorado at Boulder will find wheelchairs to sit in instead of their usual desks. The class instructor will give each student a specific task to accomplish in a wheelchair during the class and will assign the students to design a bus stop for the disabled.

Media coverage of a CEO in a major business publication has boosted the executive's salary by as much as $1.4 million in part because that coverage affects how non-executive or "outside directors" evaluate the CEO, according to a study from the University of Colorado at Boulder Leeds School of Business.

As part of ongoing efforts to reduce a campus energy bill that exceeds $25 million a year, the University of Colorado at Boulder is rewarding employees who implement strategies to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions while providing conservation learning opportunities to students. Five CU-Boulder buildings attained Buff Energy Star status during the 2006-07 fiscal year, which means that building employees reduced energy use by at least 5 percent over the previous fiscal year.